Definition of "top-grade" [top-grade]

• Surpassing in quality (adjective)

WordNet. Princeton University. 2010.

• "When Moody's on Wednesday repeated a warning that the U.K. could lose its top-grade debt rating if it doesn't get its policies right, sterling fell sharply before investors realized they had heard this before."
• "Shortly afterward, Nixon quipped with his aides that the Chinese leader must be quite stingy to part with such a small amount of leaves, but he understood the value of the gift when someone told him that what he had been given was half of the whole harvest of top-grade Da Hong Pao for that year."
• ""Nowadays, a growing minority is buying the best teas imported from India and some of our mélanges, and, yes, increasingly, some of the top-grade Chinese tea as well.""